Posted
by
timothy
on Tuesday June 03, 2014 @10:30AM
from the thought-it-was-a-protocol-droid dept.

mrspoonsi (2955715) writes "Apple CEO Tim Cook during his keynote said that around 130 million customers have purchased their first Apple device in the last twelve months. He states, 'Many of these customers were switchers from Android,' he said. 'They had bought an Android phone by mistake, and then had sought a better experience and a better life.' He added that almost half of those who have purchased an iPhone in China since December have switched from Android. However, it is worth noting that iPhones were not actually available in China until December, when pre-orders began, so it is unclear how much of the device's popularity there is simply down to the novelty factor, rather than a burning desire to flee from Android."

An android phone is quite flexible and allows quite a bit of freedom to the user. An Apple phone may look cool, but as soon as you think of stuff that you like (other favorite web browser etc.) you are toast.

My wife and I have had "smartphones" (starting with Palm and the older Windows Mobile) for pushing 10 years now. We'd had Android phones for about 4 years, then we switched carriers in October. My wife decided she wanted to give an iPhone a try. I have an iPad for work, and she liked how it worked. She liked it for a couple of weeks, then the limitations started to get in the way. No external storage. Certain apps not available that she wanted. Settings she wasn't allowed to change such as default apps. In March we got her a new S4 and gave the iPhone to my daughter. 6 months is all she could stand being locked into Apple's walled garden. She didn't realize how open the Android system is in comparison to iOS.

If anything, I think Cook has it backwards. People go in looking for a smart phone and get sold an iPhone instead. If people are looking for an iPhone and walk out with an Android device I think it is more likely because of the price difference from an entry-level Android vs. an iPhone. It is very doubtful that they don't understand the difference with all of the marketing and hype surrounding both platforms. That or Apple is seriously underestimating the cognitive abilities of its customers, which is insulting at best.

Your anecdote doesn't really mean much. Apple has much better retention than other companies, and when you look at buying intention or people who have switched, the numbers do come out on Apple's side. It's nice that you and your wife have found things that work for you. When I borrowed a Nexus 4 for a week, I had to struggle to make it a week before I went back to my iPhone 4. I just couldn't find anything particularly redeeming about Android phones that I didn't get from my iPhone (other than the speed of a new phone, obviously, but any new phone would give me that; and the price).

You're assuming he means that they purchased the phones 'by accident' rather than what he probably intended, which is that they later had buyer's remorse and felt they'd made a mistake. He's deliberately blurring the meaning here, but he's almost certainly not claiming that people went home with phones and didn't realise until later that they weren't made by Apple.

Yes, if people haven't watched the keynote, you need to take Cook's comments in context. It was a light dig, said with a humorous tone whilst discussing sales numbers, os upgrade numbers and customer satisfaction survey results.

A friend was visiting Asia and in one "market", on a parking garage's underground lower level, a "vendor" was offering iPads. The box looked just like a real iPad box. Inside the tablet looked just like a real iPad. However when powered up it was an Android tablet. I saw his photos, the box and tablet were good counterfeits.

Perhaps this is occurring with phones too and Cook's jobs is perhaps true for some people. They accidentally bought Android due to counterfeiting.:-)

They are locking you in because phones that run iOS are only available from Apple. If I buy an Android phone, and buy my apps from the Google Play store, then when it comes time to buy my next phone, I still have to buy an Android phone if I want to use all my apps, but I can get a phone from Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Google, and many others. If I bought an iPhone, and I want to upgrade my phone, and maintain usage of my old apps, I have to get another iPhone. You're always locked into the operating system. but with Apple/iPhone, you're locked into the hardware manufacturer as well.

I can carry my music collection around on my phone (It doesn't fit on internal storage especially after I install a few large games e.g. plants vs zombies is 374MB). I use Osmand+ which allows me to have offline maps, the data file for Florida is 120MB, california is near 400M and will only increase as the Open street maps data gets more detailed (I had no data connections while I was visiting the US, prepaid data is very expensive).

One of my co-workers has 2 kids and having elmo or some movie available on his phone is probably the only reason he still has hair. Streaming for him is not an option as we are not in the US where 4g (or decent data connection) is available when you are not at home or by a friend (The last time his wife went to the DMV with them was not a fun experience, she is ecstatic that one is now in kindergarden).

alternate browser: chrome and opera are available for iPhone, and probably ffx too ( i never checked). you can put the browser on your dock and take the safari browser off your dock. the only limitation is you can't change the default browser for which program is used when opening links in an email, etc. but otherwise do what you want.

Nope. All third-party browsers in iOS must use the iOS webkit framework [howtogeek.com]. So yes, you can get "chrome" for iOS, but really it's just a Safari skin. Case in point, you can't use chrome extensions on it.

Really, apart from the soundbites given by evangelicals such as Cook, how many actual pieces of malware have slipped through the Play Store? Yes, installing random software from the net can be quite harmful, I guess that is given (there have been attacks on jailbroken iPhones as well). Personally, I like to have the ability to choose (yay for HumbleBundle), but I can see the point of the walled garden. Then again, Apple App Store is no panacea, as was proven quite recently [arstechnica.com].

Why would I be under surveillance with an iPhone? Apple makes most of their money selling us stuff. The main alternative is Android, an OS from a company that makes most of their money selling us to advertisers. It's much more in keeping with Apple's interests to give us the best possible experience than it is with Google's.

Of course, all cell phones connected to a carrier are under constant surveillance, and if I want to do something clandestinely I have to assume that that data is recorded for later

I have an Android and an iPhone and find the iPhone works better for what I need it for. While I've been frustrated from time to time with the iPhone, it doesn't take more than a minute or two of using the Android before I'm ready to pitch the damn thing into a nearby lake. It's nothing about available apps or external storage or anything, just basic usability. Being able to compose an email or text someone.

[John]

Glad you are comfortable sending a text or a really long text (email) on your iPhone. Those of us interested in a smartphone will continue to enjoy the Android experience.

An android phone is quite flexible and allows quite a bit of freedom to the user. An Apple phone may look cool, but as soon as you think of stuff that you like (other favorite web browser etc.) you are toast.

My daughter pestered and pestered for an iphone, as all her friends had one. Once she got one and found that there were much fewer free apps, and those that were free were mostly demos the novelty wore off.

In early 2012, there were over 1.1 million apps available on the iPhone, and in May 2011 (when they approved their 500,000th app), 37% of the apps on the store were free, and the average price of all apps was $3.64.

In my experience (2008-2010, on an iPod Touch), you could do a fair amount for free, but most (not all) free apps were feature-cut demo versions. On Android, free apps often have all their features, but are ad-supported.

I can see someone being disappointed by the difference, but I agree that the post you replied to sounds like an exaggeration.

And this conclusion has been peer reviewed [sciencedaily.com]. With Cyanogenmod, you even get a line-item veto (privacy guard).

Malicious software has appeared in the iTunes store. Android, in contrast, displays everything that an application will need to access so that users can decide themselves whether to go ahead with an installation.

To compare these two security models, Han and co-workers identified 1,300 popular applications that work identically on both iOS and Android. These applications, such as Facebook, often access code libraries on smartphones called security-sensitive application programing interfaces (SS-APIs), which provide private user data or grant control over devices such as the camera.

The researchers found that 73% of iOS applications, especially advertising and analytical code, consistently accessed more SS-APIs than their counterparts on Android. Additionally, the SS-APIs invoked by iOS tended to be those providing access to sensitive resources such as user contacts.

The results imply that by allowing users to control permissions, Android may be better at preventing stealthy applications from getting hold of private information. Notably, Android also intentionally avoids using SS-APIs if non-security-sensitive APIs can be used to achieve the same functions.

The main problem that I see with Android security is that it takes forever to get security patches. It can take over six months for an Android point release to get validated by the carriers and pushed out to all of the phones, and many Android phones that are more than 18 months old aren't getting ANY Android updates anymore.

Combine that with clueless end users (like my poor Mom) who seemingly click on every e-mail and SMS link they receive without thinking twice, and you have a disaster waiting to happen. She switched to an iPhone after her old Android 2.3 phone got hacked and filled with malware.

Hand-balling security to the end user, when 90% of end users are muppets will not work, as demonstrated by the malware success on the Windows platform. Android is the Windows XP of smartphones. The rest of the world has tried that approach for the past 30 years, seen that it is not viable, and moved on. End users are not, and will not ever be, or care to be security experts. Apple gets that. Microsoft is beginning to get that. Android fans who say that leaving security stuff to the end user do not get

You haven't heard of Cyanogenmod, have you? It's an alternative operating system you can install on Android devices (I know I'm not the only person who twitches when people say "androids" to refer to any Android device, as if all of them are equivalent and running the exact same software).

Well, considering that that website has a navigation link to "Sample Page", with all of the glory of a default Wordpress install, and links to "Disclosure", "Privacy Policy", and "Terms" that have no content on the page, I'm going to suggest that you probably don't want to download their software or give them your money. If you want to replace the default OS of an Android device I would suggest you look here [cyanogenmod.org] instead of a shady clickbaiting site. That's not exactly the best example to prove a point.

It looks like Apple would disagree. This is literally the first line of the iOS 7 agreement:

[quote]IMPORTANT: BY USING YOUR iPHONE, iPAD or iPOD TOUCH (“iOS DEVICE”), YOU AREAGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THE FOLLOWING TERMS:A. APPLE iOS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENTB. NOTICES FROM APPLE[/quote]

Followed by this:

[quote]PLEASE READ THIS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT ("LICENSE") CAREFULLY BEFORE USINGYOUR iOS DEVICE OR DOWNLOADING THE SOFTWARE UPDATE ACCOMPANYING THISLICENSE. BY USING YOUR iOS DEVICE OR DOWNLOADING A SOFTWARE UPDATE, ASAPPLICABLE, YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. IF YOU DONOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE, DO NOT USE THE iOS DEVICE OR DOWNLOADTHE SOFTWARE UPDATE.[/quote]

Just out of curiosity though, which OS are you replacing iOS with? The OpeniBoot project hasn't been touched in 2 years and doesn't have any drivers. There isn't exactly a huge community of people actively replacing iOS with another OS.

I have an iPad for about 2 years already and Android phones for almost 4. Last week I bought an Android tablet because I got tired of iPad's software limitations. It is still a nice piece of hardware to watch Netflix and browse the internet, but that's it. With the Android tablet I can do much more than I could with the iPad. Not having to deal with iTunes is also a plus.

To be fair, it is a bit backwards From The Way It Has Always Been Done. You don't attach a file to an email (since iOS doesn't like the idea of free floating 'files' running around and contaminating things), you use the app that created the data to take the data from that app and move it somewhere else (in this case via email).

You don't think of it as moving or emailing a file. That is doubleplusungood.

I bought my little Android phone intentionally. At $150 with a Net10 sub ($45/mo for unlimited everything, and it uses Verizon's towers), the little Huawei Ascend is cheap, it does what I want it to do, and runs quite nicely. Why am I so cheap about my phone? Because if it gets lost, broke or stolen, so what? I'll just get another one.

By contrast, a $600 iPhone or Galaxy or whatever with the typical carrier's shitty plan/contract/caps/bullshit/etc isn't exactly my idea of Nirvana. I got better things to do with the extra dosh.

Mind you, I'm not a fanboy of any camp; I have an Android phone, a box at home running Linux Mint, and a MacBook Pro (I prefer UNIX/Linux for my lap/desktop - sue me.) Pint is, Android has its limitations (esp. when integrating with the MBP), but it also has its advantages (like actual file management instead of $#@^! iTunes).

To each their own... I've begun to reach an age where watching fanboys go nuts trying to defend their idol is entertainment, not a call to arms (well, except when it comes to Microsoft... fuck Microsoft.)

I just got my wife another iPhone 4S to replace the dead 3GS. It cost $22. As long as you stay away from the bleeding edge, all of these things are essentially disposable. If I knew I could snag a new 4S for that cheap I might have foregone messing with the battery in my own 4S.

Three of my friends had Android phones, and then (at different times) bought iphones. None of them went more than a year before switching back to Androids. One of them had to wait for the 'free' upgrade to become available.

I once bought an iPad. I did a lot of research on it - it had had the best graphics processor and best processor at the time. Solid construction, very nice hardware. I may have even been willing to live with the OS restrictions. The geographical limitations of me buying an app from the iStore killed it for me. I even went as far as to contact the app author, who said his hands were tied. Willing buyer, willing seller, some fcuked up bastards in the middle. I will never go back.

How were the seller's hands tied exactly? Most app developers just click every country in the app store when it comes to selling it. The only reason I can think of for a developer not to sell an app in a certain country is that he is not allowed to sell it there, because of content which is illegal in that country, or because the software uses libraries with a license that restricts sales in certain countries. In both cases it is appropriate not to sell the app there, and no fault of the "bastards in the

I have a problem with 'rules' (when it comes to my own computer and what I can do with it) and so I won't be caught dead with a mac or iphone or ipad.

computers are more than a simple appliance to me. so apple is entirely wrong for folks like me.

wish there was a hacker's version (blessed by the company) for those who want something a bit more hybrid, with more freedom. I don't mind apple hardware but their software and systems approach is a huge turn-off and I won't buy their hardware only to have to fight them and work-around them.

I can only assume that iTunes isn't available in his country at all or that each country has their own restrictions like nudity, etc. There are restrictions due to DRM and copyrighted content and there are legal limitations in each country. Apple does list [apple.com] what the restrictions are by country.

Not quite, specifically this was the game Avernum in South Africa. Not DRM or nudity or anything like that, just bloody-mindedness on apple's part. I could have pirated it, but I prefer to pay Jeff for his work.

This is something I noticed with a lot of Windows Phone users. They bought into the platform thinking it was new and neat, and the WP supporter crowd (yes, it exists) were cheering themselves on last year claiming that they were the fastest growing platform. But from what I saw, after owning it for one generation most of these guys switched back to Android. And as it turns out, Windows Phone is no longer the "fastest growing" and is in fact stagnating.

They purchased AMC 20 years prior to your vehicle purchase. And Jeeps have never been known to be things like 'leak free'. OTOH, I was rather impressed with how they built them, at least relating to the 1978 CJ5 I used to have. Ran several miles at highway speed with no oil in the sump. And for tens of thousands of miles after refilling it:D Oh, it had about 80,000 miles on it when I bought it. But problem free? Well, how did the oil drain out?

Actually, yes, I think that's a fair conclusion - not that all Apple users are idiots (I'm one), but that is what he's basically intimating by making that ludicrous remark. How could anyone confuse phones? Even if you're totally illiterate, or English isn't your language, the iPhone has a distinctive look that hasn't changed in years, plus a big honkin' Apple logo on the back.
In reality, I think he's full of shit, and just trying to make excuses for Androids popularity and Apple's loss of market share.

Motorola should totally cut a deal with Lucasfilm (or Disney, or whoever owns the rights now) and put out a commercial that plays off that line from Star Wars. Could maybe make some fake desert footage of a guy looking for a phone and splice it in with clips of Alec Guinness from the movie. People would eat it up.

I constantly have people refer to my Moto X as an iPhone and tell me that it's natural for me to use an iPhone since I work on a lot of Macs. I don't think the Slashdot crowd are the type to get duped, but I can recount tons of people who went in for iPhones and were sold on Galaxy S3 by Verizon sales critters. I don't think really either is going to make for a better life more than the next. You can play Angry Birds while you poop with either equally effectively.

I suspect - and Apple would probably hate this - that to many people "iPhone" and "smartphone" mean exactly the same thing, in much the same way that all tissues are Kleenex. If you don't give enough of a damn about the differences between square touchscreens called Nexus and iPhone and Galaxy and Lumia to make a purchasing decision between them, you probably don't give enough of a damn to keep their names striaght.

If corporate found out, it would probably drill something like this into clerks' heads: "Samsung doesn't make the iPad; Apple does. Let me show you the Galaxy Tab."

Not always the best strategy. You have to understand that many people in the buying public view such corrections as you being overly pedantic. If they want a "Samsung iPad" and you tell them Samsung only makes the Galaxy Tab, many will get offended and walk away.

Not being able to install whatever I want on an iOS device is the reason I'll never get one, no matter what.

I like my Android phone because it's a personal computer in my pocket. It really is! It has its own filesystem that I can navigate and move files around, I can download an apk from a trusted website and install it; I can do anything I want. Not so with an iPhone. It doesn't let you install anything you want, so it can never truly be personal computer for your pocket. It's just a smart dumbphone. The e

having just bought a phone for my mom, at a VZ store no less, they recommended iPhone. We went with the Galaxy S5 instead, as I have never used an iPhone, and I am the one going to support it. My impression of the store was, you have half a dozen iPhones on the Apple wall, and several brands and a few models of each on the Android wall. The shear number of choices made it hard to choose iPhone randomly. And the salesperson's push to iPhone made it hard to choose Android by accident.

At least that's actually true. I've ordered Coke, and been served Pepsi without being told. I don't really like Pepsi. And I generally realize its wrong after the first sip. I don't make a stink about it, but had I known they were going to serve me Pepsi, I'd have switched the order to 7-up.

I'm sure sure lots of people order a 'Coke' and just mean 'cola' and don't care what gets brought to them.

I won't knock either. I've used both. Cook's statement is just plain incorrect.

You don't purchase something and replace it because you bought it buy mistake. You get the replacement if you need a new phone or feel the upgrade is worth it. Maybe a few of those people walked in wanting an iPhone and walked out with an Android phone (with no interference from sales staff). That would be the only time anyone bought it "by mistake."

Oh, I've bought a few phones that were, in hindsight, mistakes. I knew what I was buying, I just didn't know it was crap. Android prior to Gingerbread was crap, and even Gingerbread was kind of iffy. Fortunately, smartphones have reached a point where even the cheap phones are pretty nice. My S3 is approaching 2 years old and I may continue to use it for another 2 years.

And I think this is what Cook was saying. People went to buy a smartphone thinking they'd have the same apps/functions/etc as the iPhone if they bought any smartphone, then found that their Android phone didn't do/use the specific thing that all their friends on iPhones could do/use.

To say that Tim Cook was saying people went to intentionally buy an iPhone, but accidentally bought an Android phone is disingenuous. You know what he meant. And if you don't, you have a serious English comprehension issue.

Now, whether cellular providers' sales people fobbed Android phones off on customers who were actually looking for an iPhone is another story.

You can imagine the scenario:

"I'd like an iPhone.""That's $399, then.""What?! That's a lot!""Well, we have these (Android) phones, and they're only $39.95.""Is that an iPhone?""No, but it does all the same things.""Oh. And only $39.95? Okay. I'll take it."

A few months later they've discovered that iPhone only app that all their friends rave about doesn't run on Android. Oops.

It's disgusting that things like that happen. When I go to the Apple store, they find out what I intend to use my device for and then recommend an Android, iPhone, Windows phone device based on what's best for me.

"Apple CEO Tim Cook during his keynote said that around 130 million customers have purchased their first Apple device in the last twelve months states, "Many of these customers were switchers from Android," he said.

Perhaps this means:

Apple CEO Tim Cook, during his keynote, said that around 130 million customers have purchased their first Apple device in the last twelve months. 'Many of these customers were switchers from Android,' he said.

Ha. I get to help various employees set up their google apps email on their phones where I work. Guess which phone has just one email program and is easy to add an account for. I don't even understand why android needs two or three different email apps.

Android has one default email app; Email. It supports POP3, IMAP, and Exchange email accounts, and is managed from the Acccounts area in the Android Settings menu. There is also an app for Gmail, but this integrates with Hangouts, G+, Voice Search, and all of the Google services. It's there because it's a Google service, and they are pushing their own product just like any other company does.

Managing accounts on Android is just as easy as on an iPhone; It's exactly the same. It's done this way so permissions to account details can be strictly enforced, meaning there aren't account details lying randomly around the user-accessible storage, ripe for any app with "Read storage" permission to steal.

I wonder how many wanted an iPhone but ended up buying an Android because it's cheaper?

I've noticed that a lot of people want X (often for specific reasons) but decide to buy Y because it's cheaper, even thought it doesn't meet their criteria like X does and then are disappointed because it doesn't do what they want.

Maybe I'm just bad with my money, but it seems like there's a lot of people out there for whom the "deal" is at least as important as the functionality/thing they are buying, yet often they make

Is certainly why many went to Android. While I do know a few android power users, most got an Android because the did not need most of the features of a smart phone. The Android was a cheaper option. Or they were not going to have multiple devices, and the larger screen was made the phone a better compromise. This is the mistake Apple made, I think. Assuming people just wanted a cheaper phone, when what people wanted was a phone that was better at browsing the web.

If you go into a store today you can probably still find devices for sale running android 2.x. Expensive high end devices too, but if you buy a cheap droid you're in for a bad time. In the same way you can buy 7 and 8 year old blackberries too. I wouldn't recommend most of the really cheap droid products to anyone.

In the last few months, all three of my children have ditched their small screen, walled garden iPhones for Android phones. They did not do this by mistake. They did it intentionally. They are happy with Android.Tim Cook is delusional (or, more likely, blowing smoke)

I work at AirWatch and work on every mobile device and platform that exists.
They each have their merits and drawbacks. Trying to turn it into some holy war is absurd and pointless.
My two main devices are an iPhone 5 and a Nexus 7 tablet. I love them both for different reasons. As a developer both platforms have merit and both have annoying limitations.
Everything Tim Cook said is technically true but none if it means that a Nexus 5 isn't an awesome phone.

I had a 3GS that I got used. Last year, Rogers in Quebec had a deal with 5G of data, unlimited texting, unlimited local calling and domestic long distance for $70. I got an iPhone 5 on contract. What the hell? Anyhow, the clerk started pushing me towards Samsungs, but once he found out I already had an iPhone, stopped pushing the Nexus.

He then told me that Rogers pushes the Android phones harder because there is more profit in it for them.

"I-phone" is simply a term for a lot of less educated consumers. If she didn't know the difference to start with, maybe the salesman was taking the right approach to explain the other options. Did your comment help or just confuse?